LASER

Department of Applied Sciences,

Trinity College of Engineering and Research Pisoli, Pune-48
 Laser
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission
of Radiations
 Incandescent vs. Laser Light

1. Many wavelengths 1. Monochromatic

2. Multidirectional 2. Directional
3. Incoherent 3. Coherent
3
 Common Components of all Lasers
1. Active Medium
The active medium may be solid crystals such as ruby or Nd:YAG,
liquid dyes, gases like CO2 or Helium/Neon, or semiconductors such
as GaAs. Active mediums contain atoms whose electrons may be
excited to a metastable energy level by an energy source.
2. Excitation Mechanism
Excitation mechanisms pump energy into the active medium by one
or more of three basic methods; optical, electrical or chemical.
3. High Reflectance Mirror
A mirror which reflects essentially 100% of the laser light.
4. Partially Transmissive Mirror
A mirror which reflects less than 100% of the laser light and
transmits the remainder.
4
 Basic concepts for a laser
• Absorption

• Spontaneous Emission

• Stimulated Emission

• Population inversion
 Properties of Laser
• Monochromatic
Concentrate in a narrow range of wavelengths (one
specific colour).

• Coherent
All the emitted photons bear a constant phase
relationship with each other in both time and phase

• Directional
A very tight beam which is very strong and
concentrated.
Spontaneous Emission
Stimulated
Emission
 Population Inversion
• A state in which a substance has been energized, or
excited to specific energy levels.
• More atoms or molecules are in a higher excited
state.
• The process of producing a population inversion is
called pumping.
• Examples:
→by lamps of appropriate intensity
→by electrical discharge
 Two-level Laser System

• Unimaginable
as absorption and stimulated processes
neutralize one another.

• The material becomes transparent.

Three-level Laser System
Four-level Laser System

• Laser transition takes

place between the third
and second excited
states.

• Rapid depopulation of
the lower laser level.
How Laser is produced?
 Pump Source
• Provides energy to the laser system
• Examples: electrical discharges, flash lamps, arc
lamps and chemical reactions.
• The type of pump source used depends on the
gain medium.
→A helium-neon (He-Ne) laser uses an
electrical discharge in the helium-neon gas
mixture.
 Laser Construction

• A pump source

• A gain medium or laser medium.

• Mirrors forming an optical resonator.

How Laser is produced?
Two Level Laser System : Semiconductor Laser

Emission of photon due to recombination

 Ruby Laser Introduction
• A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby
crystal as its gain medium.
• It was the first type of laser invented, and was first
operated by Theodore H. "Ted" Maiman at Hughes
Research Laboratories on 16 -05-1960.
• The ruby mineral (corundum) is aluminum oxide Al2O3
with a small amount(about 0.05%) of Cr which gives it its
characteristic pink or red color by absorbing green and
blue light. The ruby laser is The ruby laser is used as a
pulsed laser, producing red light at 694.3 nm. After
receiving a pumping flash from the flash tube, the laser
light emerges for as long as the excited atoms persist in
the ruby rod, which is typically about a millisecond.
Three Level Laser System: Ruby Laser
 Ruby Laser
1. High-voltage electricity causes the
quartz flash tube to emit an intense
burst of light, exciting some of Cr3+
in the ruby crystal to higher energy
levels.

2. At a specific energy level, some

Cr3+ emit photons. At first the photons
are emitted in all directions. Photons
from one Cr3+ stimulate emission of
photons from other Cr3+ and the light
intensity is rapidly amplified.
3. Mirrors at each end
reflect the photons back and
forth, continuing this
process of stimulated
emission and amplification.

4. The photons leave through the

partially silvered mirror at one
end. This is laser light.
When a flash of light falls on ruby rod, radiations of
wavelength 5500 are absorbed by Cr3+ which are
pumped to E3.
 The ions after giving a part of their energy to crystal lattice
decay to E2 state undergoing radiation less transition.

Metastable state

In metastable state , the concentration of ions increases

while that of E1 decreases. Hence, population inversion is
achieved.
A spontaneous emission photon by Cr3+ ion at
E2 level initiates the stimulated emission by
other Cr3+ ions in metastable state

Metastable state

1.79 eV
Three Level Laser System: Ruby Laser
Three Level Laser System: Ruby Laser
Three Level Laser System: Ruby Laser
 Application
• Ruby lasers have declined in use with the discovery of
better lasing media. They are still used in a number of
applications where short pulses of red light are
required. Holographers around the world produce
holographic portraits with ruby lasers, in sizes up to a
metre squared.
• Many non-destructive testing labs use ruby lasers to
create holograms of large objects such as aircraft tires
to look for weaknesses in the lining.
• Ruby lasers were used extensively in tattoo and hair
removal
 He-Ne Laser Introduction
• A helium-neon laser, usually called a He-Ne laser,
is a type of small gas laser. He-Ne lasers have
many industrial and scientific uses, and are often
used in laboratory demonstrations of optics.
• He-Ne laser is a four-level laser.
• Its usual operation wavelength is 632.8 nm, in the
red portion of the visible spectrum.
• It operates in Continuous Working (CW) mode.
 Construction of He-Ne laser
• The setup consists of a discharge tube of length 80 cm and bore
diameter of 1.5cm.
• The gain medium of the laser, as suggested by its name, is a mixture
of helium and neon gases, in a 5:1 to 20:1 ratio, contained at low
pressure (an average 50 Pa per cm of cavity length ) in a glass
envelope.
• The energy or pump source of the laser is provided by an electrical
discharge of around 1000 volts through an anode and cathode at
each end of the glass tube. A current of 5 to 100 mA is typical for
CW operation.
• The optical cavity of the laser typically consists of a plane, high-
reflecting mirror at one end of the laser tube, and a concave output
coupler mirror of approximately 1% transmission at the other end.
• He-Ne lasers are normally small, with cavity lengths of around
15 cm up to 0.5 m, and optical output powers ranging from 1 mW to
100 mW.
Four Level Laser System: He-Ne Laser
 He-Ne laser

1  3.39 μm 2  0.6328μm 3  1.15 μm

 Applications of He-Ne laser
• The Narrow red beam of He-Ne laser is
used in supermarkets to read bar codes.
• The He- Ne Laser is used in Holography in
producing the 3D images of objects.
• He-Ne lasers have many industrial and
scientific uses, and are often used in
laboratory demonstrations of optics.
 HELIUM-NEON GAS LASER

Courtesy of Metrologic, Inc.

Laser-Professionals.com
Four Level Laser System: He-Ne Laser
 Laser Applications: Optic Fiber

NA = sin c

 C  sin 1 2
n1  n2
2
Types of Optic Fiber

Multimode Optic
Fiber

Single mode
Optic Fiber
Optic fiber communication
 Advantages of Optic Fiber over Copper Wires
• Optical frequencies are very high ~ 1014 Hz  can
carry more information
• Made from dielectric material  isolation between
transmitter and receiver
• Typically made from silica  Less expensive
• Higher carrying capacity
– Thinner More fibers can be bundled together
– More phone lines, more channels
• Less signal degradation
• No interference
– Signals do not interfere with those of other fibers
in the same cable
– Clearer phone conversations or TV reception
 Advantages of Optic Fiber over Copper Wires
• Low power
– Less degradation of signal Lower-power transmitters
can be used
• Digital signals
– Ideally suited for computer networks
• Non-flammable
– Because no electricity is passed through optical fibers,
there is no fire hazard
• Lightweight
• Flexible
– Medical imaging - in bronchoscopes, endoscopes,
laparoscopes
– Mechanical imaging - inspecting mechanical welds in
pipes and engines in airplane, rockets, space shuttle, etc
– Plumbing - to inspect sewer lines
 Areas of Application and Disadvantages of
Optic Fiber

• Telecommunications • Higher initial cost in

• Local Area Networks installation
• Cable TV • Interfacing cost
• CCTV • Remote electric power
• Optical Fiber Sensors • More expensive to
repair/maintain
 Laser Applications - Engineering

Precise Welding Precise Cutting Precise Drilling

- Metals - Metal sheets - Micro dimensional PCB
- Microelectronics - Fiber cutting - Electronic components

Barcode Scanners

Field Surveys
Arial Surveys
II. Laser Applications - Medicine
Laser Applications - Medicine
 Applications of laser

2 Military
a. Death ray
b. Defensive applications
c. Strategic defense initiative
d. Laser sight
e. Illuminator
f. Rangefinder
g. Target designator
 Laser Applications - Medicine
• Photodynamic therapy --Treatment with drugs that become active
when exposed to light. These drugs kill cancer cells
• Hyperthermia of Tumors--Body temperature that has been raised
abnormally high to kill tumor cells or make them more sensitive to the
effects of radiation and certain chemotherapy drugs
• Endoscopies : A diagnostic test that allows a physician to view the
upper gastrointestinal tract via a flexible tube inserted down the
patient’s throat
• Painless Surgery --Lasik, removing kidney stones, The hot beam
cauterizes (seals off) open blood vessels making the surgery
bloodless.
• Soft tissue surgery Clean, neat and easy cut through human tissue
(CO2 laser)
• Laser Angioplasty Ability to remove the plaque from blocked arteries
• Dermatologists For cosmetic surgery
• Dentistry --To remove the cavities a laser that is strong enough to
destroy the cavity yet too weak to hurt the enamel is used. This
procedure is painless and bloodless.
• Chromosome manipulation
 PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography is a record on paper, hence it is two
dimensional phenomenon.The intensity is
proportional to the square of amplitude of
light wave consequently photograph is a
record of amplitude of incident light waves
only.
 HOLOGRAPHY
In Holography there is provision to record phase
in addition to amplitude. Holo means whole &
Graphio means recording i.e. HOLOGRAPHY
means to keep the whole information of the
object
HOLOGRAM FORMATION
Wavefront reconstruction
VIBRATION ISOLATION TABLE
 Scientific Applications
Wavelength of He-Ne laser  = 6328Å
Deformation can be measured by formula S = n/2
The smallest deformation that can be measured with
the help of holography is /2 =3164Å
Any surface deformational studies e.g.Crystal
growth,Rate of Chemical reaction,rate of growth in
any case,
 Engineering Applications
Stress-strain relation,corrosion /erosion rates of
any material under different stress levels. It is
possible to measure strains due to thermal,
mechanical, magnetic, electric effects on
material. Flaw detections & their
measurements is possible
Flaw detection
At present DVD is able to store 4 Indian
movies at a time. But one HVD can store
800 Indian movies at a time. Then think
over what will be data storage capacity
of modern Computers…………May be
infinite.
 The Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) is an optical
disc technology.

These discs have the capacity to hold up to 6

terabytes (TB) of information.

Holography allows a million bits of data to be

written and read out in single flashes of light,
enabling data transfer rates as high as one
Terabit per second. (Fast enough to transfer a 2
hour DVD movie in about .1 seconds).
Laser Applications: Entertainment